The Environmental Stewardship Board discussed next steps for waste diversion and a possible single‑hauler contract after a resident urged faster local action.

John Levine, a Littleton resident who spoke during public comment, said the South Metro plan’s timeline delays a locally implementable single‑hauler program and urged the board to pursue a citywide option sooner. “I encourage you all to do what you can to implement single hauler program as soon as possible,” he said.

Staff described the Tri‑Cities South Metro waste diversion study and said regional coordination can yield better rates and scale for electric collection vehicles. One staff member noted a nearby example: “Commerce City’s solid waste collection fee for their single hauler will be all electric starting next week,” and said partnering jurisdictions can make an electric fleet feasible where a single municipality could not.

Given legal limits on forcing commercial entities to join a municipal contract, staff suggested hauler licensing and stronger reporting requirements as an intermediate step. Licensing could require tonnage reporting, contamination tagging, and other performance standards that increase transparency and give the city leverage to require environmental or operational standards in contracts.

Board members stressed that community outreach will be essential to avoid backlash and proposed working with the communications team to develop messaging, citizen advocates and collection events. Staff noted producer responsibility organizations (EPR) and state reimbursement processes are still being defined and that amounts per household are not yet finalized, which affects what the city could fund through those streams.

Board next steps include deeper study on licensing options, engaging haulers and communications staff on outreach strategy, and reconvening for possible study sessions or a council study session once more technical details and state guidance are available.